COVID-19 has forced teachers to quickly transition to remote learning so that students continue to receive a quality education. Learning from home is likely to continue into the fall in some parts of our country, so our member companies are stepping up to provide resources for teachers, students, and parents to make remote learning easier. Read more about how tech companies are helping with teleschool, the COVID-19 pandemic, and empathizing with stressed out parents.

Top Stories

Microsoft adds new Teams features to engage students in a more creative way. Together Mode places all participants in a shared background such as a college lecture hall, and creates a more attentive and connected online class experience. Dynamic View uses AI to optimize the virtual classroom space and prioritizes shared content and video to make managing the view more fluid, flexible, and intelligent. Microsoft Whiteboard, which increases opportunities for collaboration during classes, is being updated for Education as well. Features include sticky notes, pen and ink, and drag-and-drop capability. (Microsoft) Read more here.

Google has put together a webpage with tools and tips to keep students learning. The “Teach From Home” page includes resources for teachers, schools, and families on topics ranging from being safe online to conducting virtual classes. (Google) Read more here.

Zoom is hosting a two-day virtual professional development event that brings together thought leaders and practitioners in K-12 to inspire and empower teachers, school administration, and IT staff. Zoom’s goal and mission is to equip and train the education community so they feel prepared to successfully conduct remote, in-person, or blended learning experiences for students this fall. (Zoom) Click here to learn more.

What We’re Saying

· The tech industry scored a victory as the Trump administration rescinded controversial limits on international students. (The Washington Post) Read this news feature here.

· Tech giants back suit against Trump rule that may deport students. (Yahoo! Finance) Read this news feature here.

· Laid-off H-1B visa holders face painful predicament. (San Francisco Chronicle) Read this news feature here.

How Tech is Propelling Remote Learning

New version of STMath for remote learning (MIND Research Institute)
The new version of the program STMath includes features that will help mitigate the effects of the COVID slide and will assist educators in providing differentiated learning.

In a new episode of CIO Insights, transitioning University Learning to online learning is discussed (Cisco)
Phillip Knutel explains how Babson College was able to transition 650 courses online with the help of Cisco technology.

Apple updates coding programs and resources for educators and students (Apple)
Apple announced a new set of tools to help educators teach coding to students from grade school to college.

Amazon donating 8,950 laptops to our elementary students (Amazon)
After donating 8,200 Chromebooks, Amazon added 750 due to greater need. This goes a long way toward making sure students have a computer and internet access.

Duolingo steps in to support online classrooms at home (Duolingo)
Classroom language learners have long turned to Duolingo as a tool to complement school lessons and give them a fun, varied way to learn a language on their own time, at their own pace.

Comcast extends 60-Days of free internet service to new internet essentials customers (Comcast)

AT&T continues to offer summer learning academy (AT&T)

HP Summer Scholars (HP)

GM Launches STEM Summer School Series on YouTube (General Motors)

Free CS Courses (Amazon)

What’s New in Tech

Microsoft’s undersea datacenter helps the hunt for a COVID-19 vaccine (Microsoft)

An experimental Microsoft datacenter submerged beneath the sea in Scotland’s Orkney Islands is processing workloads for a global, distributed computing project to understand the viral proteins that cause COVID-19 and design therapeutics to stop them.

Distributed computing projects harness otherwise idle computer processing power to perform specific tasks for big science research. Ongoing projects include efforts to understand climate change, map cancer markers and fight infectious disease. The trend started in the late 1990s when tens of thousands of people downloaded the SETI@home screensaver to hunt for extraterrestrial radio signals. Read more here.

Before You Start Your Weekend

As the possibility of continued remote learning looms, Google created a relatable and hilarious video in appreciation of “how teachers do it ” as parents go through relatable struggles when trying to help teach their kids at home.